engram

Persistent memory for AI coding agents
Agent-agnostic. Single binary. Zero dependencies.

Installation • Engram Cloud • Agent Setup • Architecture • Plugins • Contributing • Full Docs

engram /ˈen.ɡræm/ — neuroscience: the physical trace of a memory in the brain.

Your AI coding agent forgets everything when the session ends. Engram gives it a brain.

A Go binary with SQLite + FTS5 full-text search, exposed via CLI, HTTP API, MCP server, and an interactive TUI. Works with any agent that supports MCP — Claude Code, OpenCode, Gemini CLI, Codex, VS Code (Copilot), Antigravity, Cursor, Windsurf, or anything else.

Agent (Claude Code / OpenCode / Gemini CLI / Codex / VS Code / Antigravity / ...)
    ↓ MCP stdio
Engram (single Go binary)
    ↓
SQLite + FTS5 (~/.engram/engram.db)

Quick Start

Install

brew install gentleman-programming/tap/engram

Windows, Linux, and other install methods → docs/INSTALLATION.md

Setup Your Agent

Full per-agent config, Memory Protocol, and compaction survival → docs/AGENT-SETUP.md

That's it. No Node.js, no Python, no Docker. One binary, one SQLite file.

How It Works

1. Agent completes significant work (bugfix, architecture decision, etc.)
2. Agent calls mem_save → title, type, What/Why/Where/Learned
3. Engram persists to SQLite with FTS5 indexing
4. Next session: agent searches memory, gets relevant context

Full details on session lifecycle, topic keys, and memory hygiene → docs/ARCHITECTURE.md

MCP Tools (18)

Full tool reference with parameters → DOCS.md#mcp-tools-18-tools

Terminal UI

engram tui

Navigation: j/k vim keys, Enter to drill in, / to search, Esc back. Catppuccin Mocha theme.

Git Sync

Share memories across machines. Uses compressed chunks — no merge conflicts, no huge files.

Local SQLite remains the source of truth. Cloud integration is opt-in replication.

engram sync                    # Export new memories as compressed chunk
git add .engram/ && git commit -m "sync engram memories"
engram sync --import           # On another machine: import new chunks
engram sync --status           # Check sync status

Full sync documentation → DOCS.md

Cloud Integration (Opt-In Replication)

Cloud is optional. Local SQLite stays authoritative; cloud is replication/shared access only.

Recommended first path (local smoke):

docker compose -f docker-compose.cloud.yml up -d
engram cloud config --server http://127.0.0.1:18080
engram cloud enroll smoke-project
engram sync --cloud --project smoke-project

Cloud mode is always project-scoped (--project is required; engram sync --cloud --all is intentionally blocked). Known repairable cloud sync/upsert/canonicalization failures keep the original error visible and recommend the explicit doctor/repair flow below; Engram never auto-applies repair from sync or autosync. For blocked cloud sync, transport_failed, or legacy session directory repair, see Engram Cloud Troubleshooting. If cloud sync stays blocked after doctor/repair, download the rescue helper and run the recommended exported-row repair:

tools/repair-missing-session-directory.sh --apply --interactive --fix-exported <project>
engram sync --cloud --project <project>

--fix-exported repairs local exported sessions[].directory and observations[] required fields that can still break the final push after doctor reports ready. For sequential legacy sync_mutations blockers, use tools/repair-missing-session-directory.sh --apply --interactive --all <project>.

After upgrading engram while an MCP client is already running:

engram setup claude-code

Then restart Claude Code so it reloads the Engram MCP subprocess and refreshed hook/config files. Updating the engram binary on disk does not replace an already-running stdio MCP process.

Upgrade flow for existing local databases (diagnose → repair → bootstrap → status):

engram cloud upgrade doctor --project smoke-project        # read-only readiness check
engram cloud upgrade repair --project smoke-project --dry-run
engram cloud upgrade repair --project smoke-project --apply
engram cloud upgrade bootstrap --project smoke-project     # resumable enroll + push + verify
engram cloud upgrade status --project smoke-project        # stage/class/reason

See DOCS.md — Cloud upgrade flow for the full state machine.

For authenticated mode, upgrade flow, dashboard behavior, reason codes, and full runtime/env details:

• Engram Cloud docs landing
• Engram Cloud quickstart
• DOCS.md — Cloud CLI reference
• DOCS.md — Cloud Autosync

Steps to Test (Beta — Phases 2+3+4)

Try the new memory-conflict-surfacing features in complete isolation from your existing engram setup. Docker uses non-default ports + a separate data dir + a beta-only token, so your prod cloud and ~/.engram/ are untouched. Cleanup is one command.

What's in the beta:

• 🔄 Cloud sync of conflict relations cross-machine
• 🔍 engram conflicts CLI + HTTP API for retroactive audit + scan
• 🧠 --semantic scan that uses your existing Claude Code or OpenCode CLI to catch vocabulary-different conflicts ("Hexagonal" ↔ "Ports and Adapters") — $0 if you're on a Pro/Max/Plus subscription

Setup (4 commands)

git clone https://github.com/Gentleman-Programming/engram.git engram-beta-repo
cd engram-beta-repo && git checkout feat/memory-conflict-surfacing-cloud-sync
docker compose -f docker-compose.beta.yml up -d
go build -o ./engram-beta ./cmd/engram

# Isolated env (does NOT touch ~/.engram or your prod cloud)
export ENGRAM_DATA_DIR=/tmp/engram-beta-data
export ENGRAM_CLOUD_SERVER=http://127.0.0.1:28080
export ENGRAM_CLOUD_TOKEN=beta-token-CHANGE-ME-please-32chars
mkdir -p "$ENGRAM_DATA_DIR"

Use cases

1️⃣ Phase 1 — Conflict detection on save (sanity)

./engram-beta save \
  "Use Clean Architecture" \
  "Layers: entities, use cases, adapters." \
  --type architecture --project beta-test

./engram-beta save \
  "Use Hexagonal Architecture" \
  "Ports and adapters separate domain from infra." \
  --type architecture --project beta-test

✅ Second save returns candidates[] with the first memory's id.

2️⃣ Phase 2 — Cloud sync of relations cross-machine

./engram-beta cloud enroll beta-test
./engram-beta sync --cloud --project beta-test
./engram-beta cloud status

# Simulate a "second machine"
ENGRAM_DATA_DIR=/tmp/engram-beta-data-2 ./engram-beta cloud enroll beta-test
ENGRAM_DATA_DIR=/tmp/engram-beta-data-2 ./engram-beta sync --cloud --project beta-test
ENGRAM_DATA_DIR=/tmp/engram-beta-data-2 ./engram-beta search "Architecture"

✅ The "second machine" sees memories synced from the first.

3️⃣ Phase 3 — Admin CLI + HTTP API

./engram-beta conflicts list --project beta-test
./engram-beta conflicts stats --project beta-test
./engram-beta conflicts scan --project beta-test --dry-run
./engram-beta conflicts scan --project beta-test --apply --max-insert 10

# In another terminal: ./engram-beta serve
curl -s "http://127.0.0.1:7437/conflicts?project=beta-test" | jq

✅ List/scan/stats return sensible data.

4️⃣ Phase 4 — Semantic LLM-judge (the killer feature) 🎯

export ENGRAM_AGENT_CLI=claude   # or opencode

./engram-beta conflicts scan --project beta-test --semantic --apply \
  --max-semantic 5 --concurrency 3 --yes

✅ Your agent's LLM judges semantic similarity. $0 if on a subscription.

5️⃣ The case keyword search NEVER catches

Vocabulary-different but semantically-conflicting:

./engram-beta save \
  "Use Postgres for the user database" \
  "Postgres 15 is our SQL store for users." \
  --type architecture --project beta-test

./engram-beta save \
  "We migrated to MongoDB last quarter" \
  "Document store now backs the user collection. SQL is gone." \
  --type decision --project beta-test

./engram-beta conflicts scan --project beta-test --semantic --apply \
  --max-semantic 5 --yes

./engram-beta conflicts list --project beta-test --status judged

✅ The LLM detects supersedes / conflicts_with with high confidence — FTS5 alone would not, because "Postgres" and "MongoDB" share no words.

Cleanup (zero residue)

docker compose -f docker-compose.beta.yml down -v
rm -rf /tmp/engram-beta-data /tmp/engram-beta-data-2 ./engram-beta

Your production engram is fully untouched throughout.

Full guide + troubleshooting

→ docs/BETA_TESTING.md

→ Report feedback: issues with beta-phase-2-3-4 label

CLI Reference

Full CLI with all flags → docs/ARCHITECTURE.md#cli-reference

Documentation

Dashboard contributors: if you modify .templ files in internal/cloud/dashboard/, run make templ to regenerate before committing. See DOCS.md — Dashboard templ regeneration.

License

MIT

Inspired by claude-mem — but agent-agnostic, simpler, and built different.

Contributors